


Friends of the Sea

by kanamidos



Category: Ensemble Stars! (Video Game)
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, i love them i really do theyre so good
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-02
Updated: 2019-06-02
Packaged: 2020-04-06 17:05:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19066921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kanamidos/pseuds/kanamidos
Summary: two boys, one aquarium, and countless feelings between the two of them.(and countless fish facts as well.)





	Friends of the Sea

**Author's Note:**

> (points at them) theyre in love

“...and I bet you didn’t know THAT. Needless to say, I think we know the winner of this contest now, Kanata.”

“Oh, I ‘already’ know that, Kaoru. You’re going to have to ‘try harder’ than that.~”

For the past hour or so, the only thing anyone could hear if they were to stroll past the two boys is a (probably) pointless competition of aquatic knowledge. Why they feel the need to keep this silly little back and forth about fun facts regarding fish is a question that Kanata himself would love the answer too, but a part of him really doesn’t mind either. It’s so relaxing to talk about fish (even if he already knows the supposed “game ending fact that’s gonna flip your world upside down,” as Kaoru puts it) to someone he loves. And it’s even better when that someone you love loves fish just as much as you.

Kanata can feel the fingers entwined within his own tighten up a bit as laughter from Kaoru follows. He can pick out a somewhat obvious undertone of frustration laced within, probably because his last fact was not the game ending fact that was supposed to flip his world upside down. “C’mon, Kanacchi! That one was so obscure! You have to be lying about knowing that one!” The grasp on his fingers lightens a little after the miniature outburst and the only thing Kanata can really do is laugh. 

“Silly boy you are. You always ‘have doubts’ on how much I really know… the faster you ‘admit’ I know more than you, the more ‘time’ we have to ‘enjoy our visit…’” Kanata attempts to do his signature wobbly and bubbly motion but soon finds it’s easier said than done when he has one of Kaoru’s hand in one of his. The stray strand of hair atop his head still finds an easy way to do so.

A glance over to his right lets him see Kaoru open his mouth to perhaps come up with a witty reply but soon finds those efforts for naught as he shifts his gaze away from Kanata in a huff. “Whatever. You were the one who insisted you knew more than me, and you know I can’t let you just say that without any proof.” He turns his head to face Kanata and smiles for the first time in a while. “Besides, I’m really enjoying this… aside from every time you tell me you already knew the fact I tell you but that doesn’t really matter.”

It takes a little more effort than Kanata wants to admit to not hold his gaze on Kaoru’s storm grey eyes for too long or risk cancelling the outside world entirely. “You are?” He breaks his left hand away from Kaoru’s right one and reaches up to run his fingers through Kaoru’s soft blonde hair. “I’m glad you’re ‘enjoying’ our little ‘date’ as much as I am.~” Kanata’s fingertips brush up against Kaoru’s cheek for a split second or two, earning a soft hum from him.

“Why would I not enjoy an opportunity for us to hang out together? I can’t help but enjoy the atmosphere you bring along with you wherever you go.” He runs one of his own hands through his hair as a few nervous laughs follow. “After all, you’re really relaxing to be around which always feels good on my heart-”

Kanata figures that his boyfriend forgot that he himself is doing the exact same thing as him until their hands awkwardly bump into each other’s near Kaoru’s shoulder. An exchanged glance is held for a few beats of time before flustered laughter from both boys follow. But it’s real and genuine laughter that makes Kanata fall in love all over again that fast. He can only compare it to a song more beautiful than anything in the world, a song that not even the most talented composers could capture as it’s beauty is far too fantasy like to even consider real.

After what seems like an eternity and a half, Kanata manages to direct his focus away from Kaoru and back to the happy little fish behind glass in front of Kaoru and him. In what feels like complete impulse, he slowly steps closer towards his friends trapped behind the clear glass separating their worlds. Kanata gently rests his hands on the cold glass in front of him, the chilling sensation alarming to his soft skin but being a comfortable feeling in its own right.

His gaze drifts upwards ever so slightly in order to take in the full sight of the colorful aquarium tank that’s home to the largest friends of the ocean. Kanata can’t help but feel a flood of memories upon just the slightest look to the creatures happily swimming around in the tank. Memories of the times he came here as a child and the other times he came here not even a year ago.

A part of him just has to wonder if these are the same exact fish he saw all those years ago. One of his hands lifts itself off the smudged glass and sends a wave to the friends in front of him. Kanata can’t fight off a smile as he starts waving to the fish with his other hand, something he would do a lot as a smaller child. Maybe the fish remember him after all these years.

He stops waving to the fish that probably don’t even remember a single person who walks by and puts his hands back onto the cool and somewhat dirty glass. Something about being here makes him feel beyond happy. Perhaps it’s because he’s always loved fish, or it might be because this is the closest he’ll ever get to seeing the ocean without tragically drowning, and maybe, just maybe-

His thoughts stop dead in their tracks the very second he feels a comforting warmth upon his left hand. A warmth that greatly contrasts the cold glass underneath his hand. Kanata is easily able to rip his attention off of the fish tank in front of him, probably because he already knows who’s hand put itself on his own.

Sure enough, a glance to his left shows him Kaoru.

An involuntary smile at the fact that this is the type of Kaoru who’s beyond enamored with the fish behind the glass. Of course, Kanata knows Kaoru loves aquatic creatures just as much as him. But seeing his eyes filled to the brim with the gentle blue light coming from the water just inches away but yet so far, seeing the softest and gentlest of smiles that makes Kanata think if he smiled any bigger he’d scare the fish away, and everything, just everything about him in this moment…

“Do you ‘like’ the friends here the ‘most?’”

Despite how quiet the question came out, it still manages to get his boyfriend to jolt a little. “Oh, yeah.” He adjusts the hand on top of Kanata’s a little bit. “I remember really liking these guys as a kid. I always thought it was pretty amazing how beautiful these creatures are… It really makes you think, huh?”

Kanata turns his head back to the fish as he hums and nods in reply to Kaoru. “Do you ‘remember’ seeing these friends a lot ‘back then?’ Do you think they ‘remember’ you?”

“Hmm? Do they… remember me?” A bit of soft laughter from Kaoru as his hand moves a little bit again. “Don’t fish have really short memory spans?”

“Kaoru.~” Kanata takes his right hand off the glass, leaving only his left one on it (and he really couldn’t move it even if he wanted to). “Maybe they ‘remember you’ in their ‘hearts.’ Maybe they ‘remember’ you because they ‘love’ you.~”

Kaoru grabs Kanata’s left hand and takes it off the glass along with his own. Without any sort of warning Kanata can feel the warmth of Kaoru’s fingers entwining themselves with his own as an equally warm laugh from his boyfriend follows. 

Kanata swears his heart just skipped multiple beats and possibly stopped working within the span of five seconds.

“You’re just making things up at this point, Kanacchi. There’s no way a fish can remember someone they haven’t seen in years.” He gently nudges Kanata’s shoulder. “So much for being an aquatic know it all like you say you are.~”

“But isn’t it normal for people or fish to remember the ones they love?” He turns his whole body to face Kaoru and takes his free hand to hold Kaoru’s. “Maybe that’s why I ‘remember’ seeing you here ‘all those years ago.’ It’s hard for me to forget seeing something so ‘beautiful’ that I couldn’t help but ‘fall in love’ with.

Within a second he sees Kaoru’s cheeks bloom into a deep crimson red that’s only made more obvious with the blue light of the water to the side of them. Such a shade of red looks very cute on Kaoru, Kanata thinks to himself. “Ah, um… that’s really nice to know! Thank you for telling me your valuable input on the topic!” He looks down, perhaps in an attempt to hide how painfully warm his face must be right now. But all he gets in reply is soft laughter from his boyfriend. Definitely not the response he expected.

“Yep. I ‘clearly remember’ seeing you here as a ‘child’ a few times. Accompanied by a ‘beautiful woman’ every time…” He weakly smiles. “...you must have been very ‘happy.’”

Kaoru looks up again and Kanata can note his cheeks being a lot less red now as only a dusting of that rosy red remains. “...happy. I was really happy back then. Coming here with someone who loved me with everything she had…” A short pause, perhaps to collect himself. “It makes me think about if she was still here… maybe we would do this all the time, seeing the fish and all?”

“...did she ‘like’ the fish too?”

A smile finds its way to Kaoru despite the topic at hand. “Oh, she loved this place just as much as me so it’s easy to assume she also loved the fish just as much. Maybe if things were different… she’d be next to us, teasing me about being your friend or whatever…” He takes a second or two to rub his eyes, a motion Kanata finds just that slightest bit heartbreaking to watch. “...sorry for getting all sad on you all the sudden, Kanacchi. I just can’t help but think of her sometimes…”

“You ‘shouldn’t’ be sorry, Kaoru. It’s ‘okay’ for you to let your feelings out. I bet she would ‘tell you’ the same thing I am.” Kanata breaks one of his hands out of Kaoru’s grasp to bring it up to his cheek, wiping away any indication of tears on them. “Do you ‘think’ she would have remembered ‘me’ if we saw each other ‘here’ in the past?”

“Of course she would have…” Kanata doesn’t even get time to think before he finds his hair being fluffed around and one of his cheeks being pinched, leading to a very flustered noise that seems somewhat inhuman. “Who wouldn’t remember such a cute little boy who proclaimed the creatures behind the glass to be his family?”

Not long after that’s said and done does Kanata find both of his hands on Kaoru’s cheeks, squishing them and pulling his face closer to his own. “Don’t act like there’s only one ‘cute boy’ around here. You’re ‘acting’ like someone would forget the ‘cute boy’ who came up to me and ‘proclaimed’ he knew more about fish than ‘anyone else’ here.”

Kaoru puffs his cheeks out a little bit and Kanata can feel his heart melting right then and there. “Well, because it’s true! I know waaaaay more than you when it comes to that stuff. Want me to prove it to you right now?”

A poke to the nose. “There’s ‘no need to’ because I ‘know’ more than you.” The response just seems to make Kaoru roll his eyes.

He can hear his boyfriend take a somewhat frustrated sounding breath in, then out. “Fine, you wanna play like this? I’ll give you the best fact yet! Nobody but me knows this one it’s so good!”

“‘Hit me’ with your ‘best’ then. But just know in ‘advance,’ I already-”

Expecting a fact, Kanata doesn’t even get time to prepare himself for the sneak attack kiss he’s now in the middle of. Feeling warmth coursing through his blood with every second is definitely something he couldn’t have predicted so suddenly (and from Kaoru of all people), but nonetheless he closes his eyes and puts his hands snugly around Kaoru’s waist to pull him even closer.

Kanata can feel Kaoru run a hand through his hair as he deepens the kiss ever so slightly, as if he wanted to proclaim his love a million times over again without having to go through the pain of saying it a million times. He rests his other hand on Kanata’s shoulder and now it’s his turn to pull his boyfriend closer. The warmth is almost suffocating; it makes Kanata feel like he’s drowning and he can’t do anything about it.

But a part of him wouldn’t mind feeling this way of it meant he could drown with Kaoru.

They break away after a minute or so, the only trace of the moment left being the gentle pink coating their faces. Kaoru takes the hand that’s on Kanata’s hair and moves it to his other shoulder as he ever so softly laughs. “So, did you not know that one?”

“Hmm? Not know ‘what?’ Was there a ‘fact’ in there?”

“Y-you’re gonna make me SAY IT!? Right here, right now, with other people around!?” He moves his hands to cover his face as Kanata could catch the reddening of his cheeks starting up again. “You’re awful, Kanacchi!”

The attempt to hide his face is soon for naught as Kanata pushes his hands off his face. “You were able to ‘kiss me.’ Do we need to ‘kiss’ again?”

Flustered laughter soon follows the statement in a way Kanata finds beyond adorable. “We don’t need to! As nice as that sounds we really don’t need to!” Kaoru rubs the back of his neck as he lets out a sigh. “Okay, fine. I guess I just wanted to share my favorite fish fact with you…”

“And what would ‘that one’ be?”

Within just a second Kanata finds Kaoru smiling right at him in a way that makes him question how he’s even allowed to be that beautiful. “I can’t believe you’re making me say this… did you know that I love you more than you could ever know?” The way the light reflects on his face makes him look just that more beautiful and Kanata really has to wonder if he’s dreaming all of this.

“...Kaoru?” It takes a little more effort than he wants to even speak clearly enough for him to hear.

“Do you need something, Kanata?”

Coming back to his senses, he can’t help but smile as he looks into Kaoru’s eyes.

“I already ‘knew’ that one.~”

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading!! this was originally supposed to be part of a larger fic collection i have but this ended up turning into its own thing lmao... im not mad tho theyre very good boyfriends
> 
> also i want kaoru to call kanata kanacchi more in canon so this is just me being self indulgent as hell!!!!!
> 
> want to say something about this work or just want to drop by and say hi? catch me on twitter, @kanamidos is where to find me~


End file.
